People Suck

Spring semester started a couple of weeks ago here in Texas and I am in full swing in college. I’m taking 17 credit hours this semester! Blah.

First day back to my program after a semester’s forced absence wasn’t a great homecoming. In fact, I had to force myself to go again. Oh awful. Because I love stories, I will tell you mine.

My day started at 7:30 a.m. when I had to wake up. Forty minutes later, I was running late for my 8:50 a.m. that was an hour away. Of course, I hit traffic. I happened to walk (run, really) into class at 9 a.m. after having a particularly difficult time finding a parking space downtown. When I walked into the classroom, the professor stopped class to ask me “Are you here for sociology?” When I confirmed her question, she said very nastily, “I need to see you after class.” To those of you who are teachers, I totally understand that I really shouldn’t have been late and that I should leave earlier. Just wait though…

Twenty minutes after I came in, another woman walked in the same door I did, yet this time the professor didn’t say a single word to her. Ten minutes after that, another woman walked in and she also wasn’t disturbed while the tardy student walked walked to an open seat. I was astonished. In fact, the professor went on to tell the class that “this class will be a safe place for everyone here.” Pfff, well when I responded to a question that she had asked the class, her entire tone and demeanor changed and she talked to me as though I were so uneducated that I couldn’t possibly know what my own name was. Ugh.

When the class ended, there was a small line to sign the attendance sheet. That’s all she wanted — for me to sign the attendance sheet. When I was done, she said “Thank you” with such contempt that I just wanted to smack her. I was pissed.

The next two classes weren’t any better either. This time, I was 30 minutes early for my sign language class since we were let out early from my previous class. Sign language class, however, was two hours long, so halfway through we were given a break. We were let out at 1:02 p.m. and were told we had 15 minutes. Well, I forgot to pack anything for lunch when I was dashing out of the house and since I was going to stay at the school until after 6 p.m., I went downstairs to grab a wrap.

At 1:15, I ran back upstairs and right into a closed door. I was like, what the hell? When the professor opened the door, she said, “You are late.”

“Um, no I’m not, you said we had 15 minutes and I still have 2 minutes.”

“Well you are late. I shouldn’t even let you in.”

Wtf?

And again, 10 minutes later, another student walks into the class and not shit was said to her. Nothing was said to the third chick who was late as well. Grrr. What was also interesting was the professor’s interaction with a student who was an African-American. The professor didn’t explain the homework well (read: hardly at all) and when this student asked for specifics, the professor “yelled” (as much as you can in sign language) “Were you asleep the whole class?” No bitch, we can’t read your fucking mind.

I can’t help but think about the differences between me and those four women who were more late than I. Maybe I am just connecting meaningless things, but I can’t help it. Those two in my first class? Thin, white, conventionally pretty women. The other two in the third class? Also thin, white, conventionally pretty women and also students who had this professor before for different classes.

Yeeaaaah. This semester is gonna be shitty.

I know that I missed talking about two other classes, but really the only bullshit there is politics and religion. I’m sorry, but when one professor “seriously questions” the murder of 90% of the Native Americans as genocide, and when another professor says “I’ll be praying” no less than ten times the whole class, we’re gonna have issues. Le sigh.

I’ve already had issues with the particular program I am, namely that the administration is seriously religious — as in the whole administration was hired from the local church, everyone knows everyone else, and if you happen to not be their particular brand of Christian, well then you aren’t Christian at all. Forget about being anything other than Christian…

I just can’t wait until I graduate and never have to see these people again.

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As a retired university professor I can only say you need to nip this in the bud. Go to the prof’s office during office hours and calmly explain that you feel the two of you got off on the wrong foot and you don’t know why. The factually report to her what you told us here in your post about your observations that you got publically (is that a word?-never-mind) called out when the other late students didn’t and this needs to be processed if this semester is going to be valuable. If she really is a fat bashing asshole, then at least she knows that you won’t stand for it and you are keeping a paper trail of incidents. If she is just another overworked underpaid college prof who has talk this class a million times then there is a one in a million chance that you were the first one to come in late and so she wanted to set an example but when she saw other folks coming in late she figured screw it I should just keep going with the class. It’s possible….doubtful….but possible, in any case if that is the case, then she will apologize for her inequity and learn to treat all late comers equally fat and thin alike.
If you do decide to approach the teachers to problem solve this, I look forward to hearing progress reports on what happens during the class! (Don’t worry, you won’t be graded down for not turning in your work) and one thing is for certain…I grade on a CURVE! :-)

I think it's a possibility that your appearance has nothing to do with the treatment you received, rather it's a function of the Good Ol' Boy Network that you mention. On the other hand, it's hard to say. This is what "intersectionality" is all about. When a black, lesbian, wheelchair-using woman is discriminated against is it racial? Orientation? Ability? Sexism? Who knows? Does it really matter? Unequal and unfair treatment is wrong, period.

However, should this actually impact your grades and/or your ability to graduate, THAT will require further action. As an alumnus of your school, I'm sick of the bs that's going on.

Are you sure that is the right school for you? They sound horrible. I’d be dropping all the classes the next day. [I have a bachelors in art ed and have taken a paralegal program too and a few graduate courses] I don’t know if that is a southern thing/Texas, but here you can be late for college classes and while the professors may be annoyed if you make it a habit, things are not run like high school. I’m a Christian but wouldn’t like being treated like a 13 year old either or talked down to.

It’s sad that these buttholes think that they can go around treating anyone they want like they’re so beneath them. These idiots seriously need to be fired!!! And as for them being so-called “good Christians”, REAL Christians wouldn’t act that way. Or, if they did, they’d have the decency to apologize and ask forgiveness, then never do it again. It’s idiots like these that give Christians a bad name, and if it wasn’t for the real example of the real Jesus (and not the one that guys like this make up and slap His name on), I swear people like this would make me want to go atheist (or at least pagan, cuz hey! I always thought Wicca sounded interesting to learn more about).